


All That is Lost

by Nebbles



Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, because the world needs more otgw sadfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-22
Packaged: 2018-04-22 20:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4849790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebbles/pseuds/Nebbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Wirt couldn't save Greg? What if he listened to the words of The Beast?</p>
            </blockquote>





	All That is Lost

“Greg? Greg? Oh god, Greg… no, god no…” Wirt could not get his hands to remain steady. Panicked fingers scratched at edelwood bark, hoping to free Greg from its clutches. “Greg, come on! We need to get home!”

“Wirt…” Beatrice could only stand solemnly, knowing his fate was woven into The Beasts’ hand. She had not the heart to tell him.

“Greg! Come on!” Wirt tried to pull at the branches, digging his fingernails into the bark. “No!” He tried to ignore the small drips of oil blackening the snow beneath him. It was just an illusion - a trickery of the woods. He promised to get them home. Even if he had given up before, he had to get them home. “Greg…”

Branches continued to coil around his body. Leaves stemmed from the tips as small trails of oil began to leak from the rivets. Little of Greg’s body remained visible, but Wirt refused to give up.

His hands somehow steadied themselves. He reached for the axe at his feet, hoping the blow would get Greg free. As he raised the axe, his hands began shaking once more. If he missed… no, that thought was sickening. He didn’t want to imagine that.

“Wirt! Are you mad?! You could chop his head off!” Beatrice couldn’t take the axe from his hands, but tried for the best next thing. “Wirt, please… there’s nothing we can do. The edelwood claimed him.”

“B-Beatrice, no, I…” The axe landed softly in the blackened snow. He ran his hands down the bark of the tree, slicking his hands with oil. There was hardly a trace of his brother left. “I…I… failed to save him, Beatrice. I-I let him die…”

“Oh, Wirt, no… this isn’t your fault…” She shook her head sadly. “There was nothing any of us could do.”

“I… I could have been a better brother. I let him walk away. I wasn’t fast enough. His soul is bound to these woods, forever…” Wirt stared at his dirtied hands. “I might as well have his blood on me.”

Beatrice wanted to attempt to comfort him once more, but was cut off by a presence she had nearly forgotten about.

“Now, Wirt…” The Beast hovered over the distraught boy’s body. “If you take on the task of lantern bearer, I can store your brother’s soul in here forever. This way, you’ll always carry a part of him with you. Wouldn’t you like that?”

“G-greg…” Wirt felt cold. So, so cold. He wasn’t sure if it was the snow finally eating at his body, or having The Beast in such close proximity. “I… I just want my brother back.”

“And that, you can have, if we make a deal,” his hand swooped to grab the fallen lantern. “Do you not care about the soul of the daughter of the Woodsman? Do you value your brother’s soul above all?”

“I… it’s my fault he’s gone… I-I need…” Wirt watched his hands twitch uncontrollably, his breath growing short and panicked. “I-I-I need… he… he can’t die, he needs to come back, I need my brother…”

“It sounds like we have a deal, Wirt,” the lantern was placed in his hands. The warmth didn’t seem to reach Wirt. His body felt like ice. “Just become the next lantern bearer, and you can live with your brother in the woods forever.”

The woodsman’s daughter did not occupy his thoughts. That was not Greg. It would never be Greg. “I…” What would he return to at home, anyway? Facing the fact he left his brother to die? That he would forever be saddled with the guilt and blame of watching Greg die? “I… p-please, I want my brother back, Beast.”

“Wirt? Wirt?! What are you doing?!” Beatrice’s words sounded muffled. So, so far away, despite her closeness. “Wirt! You can’t be stuck here forever!”

“I’ll… be here with you, and Greg…” Clammy hands gripped the lantern. “We don’t have to leave, Beatrice. It’ll be the three of us, forever.”

The only sound throughout the woods was the song of The Beast as another soul was lost forever.


End file.
